


I Will be Waiting for You (Always my Love)

by darktensh17



Category: BlacKkKlansman (2018), The Kitchen (2019)
Genre: M/M, Reincarnation, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:02:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23936542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darktensh17/pseuds/darktensh17
Summary: Gabe is gone and Flip will wait for him to come back in this life or the next.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Gabriel O'Malley/Flip Zimmerman
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29
Collections: Into the Adjacentverse: Kylux Adjacents Month 2020





	I Will be Waiting for You (Always my Love)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Adjacents Month day 25 "reincarnation"
> 
> Non-referenced character death (you know it has to happen for reincarnation)

**1982**

“You don’t have to go Gabe.” Despite having watched this ritual multiple times a year during the past decade, seeing Gabe pack today brings with it a sense of finality. Somehow Flip’s heart is telling him he won’t ever see Gabe again and he just has to stop him from leaving. “You could stay, we could make a real life together.”

Gabe pauses in his packing and tilts his head towards Flip. “Babe, you know that’s not true. I couldn’t give up the life I’m leading anymore than you could stop being a cop.” He finishes shoving the last of his clothes into his beat-up duffle bag and saunters over to Flip. “Hey don’t look so sad. I’ll come back as soon as the job is done and it’s safe again,” he tilts his head up to kiss Flip, “I always do.”

Flip wraps his arms around Gabe to pull him against his chest and deepen the kiss. “You had better or I’ll hunt you down.”

“If any officer can do it you can.” Their kisses become more heated until Gabe pulls away with a grin. “I think I may be able delay my departure a little.” 

The sex is rough, Flip wants to imprint himself on Gabe to remind him he has a reason to come back (they’ve never said I love you but Gave has to know that’s how Flip feels). Gabe seems to love every moment of it and when he saunters away an hour after he was supposed to it’s with a noticeable limp.

“I’ll see you around Officer Zimmerman. Don’t do anything that I’d do while I’m gone.” He gives Flip a two fingered salute before driving off. 

Flip stays outside watching until well after Gabe’s car has gone out of sight.

When Gabe goes out on a job Flip doesn’t see or hear from him for weeks, months at times. He doesn’t worry at first, and then three months pass, five, a whole year and he hears nothing. In desperation he uses his connections as a cop and no one has heard anything. It’s like Gabriel O’Malley has completely ceased to exist.

It doesn’t deter Flip from keeping up his search, but even going to all the places he’s known Gabe to work nets him nothing. New York is the place Flip knows Gabe frequented the most and in desperation he reaches out to the heads of the Irish Mafia there, the group he knows Gabe worked with most closely.

He’s heard a lot about Kathy Brennan and Ruby O’Carroll from Gabe ad wonders if they’ve heard anything about Flip in turn. The looks they give him when he’s brought in their office tells him they must have some idea who he is. 

Ruby leans back against the tall desk Kathy is sitting at. “He’s not here. We haven’t heard from him in over a year. Even our connections have no information. If he’s anywhere in the country, well we don’t know where.” Her tone is brusque and it’s obvious she wants him out, Flip can’t blame her, a cop coming sniffing around the mob’s business is never good. That she knows why Flip is here either means they were never discreet enough, Gabe shared more than he should have, or the New York Irish mafia has more ties than Flip and the city’s police force know. 

“Thank you. If you do hear from him. . . tell him I’m looking for him.” He gets up and tilts his head in thanks to them, preparing to leave when Kathy speaks out.

“He has a place on the outskirts of our territory, east side. Keeps it there in case we need him, he’s had it for years.” Her voice catches and Flip can put two and two together given what he knows about Gabe. The place she’s talking about, it’s the place Gabe had with Claire, it’s where she was killed. “I don’t know if you’ll find anything there, but it seems to be a second home to him.”

Throat going dry Flip thanks the ladies again and heads out, ignoring the way the goons outside the door eye him. He has no beef with the Irish Mafia and trusts that they’ll leave him be; maybe they’re as worried as he is about Gabe. 

Kathy said the place on the east side is Gabe’s second home, because. . . by all appearances the house in Colorado that he shares with Flip is his first. The thought brings tears to his eyes.

“Where the fuck are you O’Malley?” 

Not at the apartment it turns out. There’s not much to the one-bedroom unit, the bed is stripped, no food in the fridge or the cupboards. Flip suspects Gabe doesn’t keep it as a second place so much as he keeps hold of it so no one else can rent it, this is where he lost Claire but the unit has just as many good memories as well. He’s shares some of them with Flip.

Flip has long come to terms with having to share Gabe’s heart with Claire, even if she is gone, and he accepts that just as he has accepted that he’s in love with a mafia hit man. Who would have thunk it?

No one, not even Gabe it seems, why else would he just disappear? 

Lost and heartbroken Flip returns to Colorado. He keeps his ear to the ground, becomes an even more dedicated officer. He can’t spend his life searching for Gabe, he’ll have to believe in him. What more can he do but wait and wait and wait?

He’ll wait forever for Gabe, not just in this life but any that may come after.

-

**2187**

“Hey! Hey you!”

“Hey, wake up! You can’t sleep here!”

Brown eyes blink open and squint up against the brightness of the sun. “W-wha?”

A head pops into his vision, red hair like a halo and large green eyes staring down at him. There’s a gap between his teeth when he talks, a lost tooth. “I said you can’t sleep here kid.” The Irish accent is thick as he speaks, making his words a bit difficult to parse out.

“W-well why not?” He pushes himself up forcing the other person to pull away. “It doesn’t say anywhere I can’t. And who’re you calling kid?”

“Sure, but I wouldn’t want to be here when Old Man Monty lets his cranky dog out. That beast never stays in the yard and he’s just as likely to bite you as piss on you. Here.” A hand is thrusts in front of his face and he accepts the help up. “Name’s Gabe, and I bet I am so older than you.”

“Philip, but everyone calls me Phil.”

Gabe studies him, they’re of similar heights although Phil is a little wider, probably because he plays football. “Nah, I’m gunna call you Flip.” 

He wants to protest but the name sounds right. “I like that. . . Yeah. Flip!”

“It’s good to meet ya Flip.” 

Flip grins and shakes Gabe’s hand, not even realizing he’s still holding it. “Good to meet you too Gabe.” This meeting feels right in a way that Flip’s twelve-year-old brain can’t quite comprehend.

“Common’ grab your bike and let’s go. I was serious about the dog!” Behind them comes loud barking which has him scrambling to grab his bike and follow after Gabe who has already started peddling off. “Hurry up slowpoke!”


End file.
